h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Is it a good idea to suggest to the editors (thru the proper Feedback forum) that a new forum ought to be established for the rash of 'game' threads that recently dominate the 'ask h2g2' forum?

Both sides of this question seem to be legitimately based on awareness of the 'general information' nature of the 'ask h2g2' forum.

Ask h2g2 is the widest-read and most popular area at h2g2 and as such it makes a good venue for casual gaming and wordplay.

So one side will say it is the place for these passtimes, like a public common.

On the other side others who might only come by to feed the pigeons are having difficultly keeping up with checking out all the new threads in what was intended as a way to reach the greatest number researchers for general inquiries of general interest.

The question poses a 'damned if ya do and damned if ya dont' situation. So I'm looking for suggestions or some concensus.
And maybe a volunteer to petition the h2g2editors for a new 'play space' so that 'ask h2g2' can remain an easily accessible (uncluttered) conversation area for questions of general interest.


~jwf~ (anal old grump)

I do not feel strongly about this, I would not be upset either way it goes. Here is a thought or two on it anyway.

I prefer the serious threads and questions.
Sometimes 5 minutes of silliness gives a much needed mental break. The quick access to this much variety is kind of nice. It's easy to do something light while waiting on a serious reply.

As an avid Countdown fan (hey, I am good at it!) i enjoy word games etc, however tend to stick to the ones in other forums such as united friends and <./>thepost</.>. Many other 'subcommunities' - for want of a better word - run quizzes and word games.

As i understand it this is only to apply to ask h2g2 to 'neaten' it up a bit.

As ask h2g2 has become "a common room" (and i dont see any need for anyone to start saying why this has come about), perhaps an idea would be to have it as a jumping off point for other places.

There is already a link to a very under-used How Do I...<./>howdoi</.>

The word plays here are very popular (otherwise you wouldnt have felt the need to ask the question) so i suspect that it would be a well visited page.

Why not add in Miscellaneous Chat <./>miscchat</.>
Speakers Corner A756605
The games room
Ask h2g2 (proper)

Just my initial

Mort

For those of you that have been around a lot longer, did it use to be all questions on ASK?
*Just curious*

I agree, "How do I?" is worth a look

I for one mix my humor and my seriousness...usually getting a little bit of both in every post.
Each person is looking for a certain thing here and it is the individual writer's responsibility to be the first link in a quality posting.
Now you have my opinion....Andrea

Here's my

I have already suggested in here that it might be an idea for a central games repository (for wnat of a better word). I think Ask H2G2 is better placed to be the central place where people can ask questions without it getting swamped by games threads.

There is a place now which has recently been set up by unconformity which is ideally suited to handling all the games threads at A1041625, and I am in the process of putting something together with a view to being a guideline document A1048547.

Perhaps the main Ask H2G2 could be edited to mention and link to these documents (when the latter is complete, as it is only a first draft)

Regards

KJ

I would like to see a seperate games forum, for the simple reason this would encourage MORE games to be started than on ASK at current. However, I would like to see it clearly linked from the ASK page. Also the ASK page would be a good place to have a register for all the most popular sections on other themes (The ASK section seems to be the most popular section on h2 so must be a logical choice as 'central place').

I'm not confident that feedback will have any effect. After the hoohaa with the w*r censorship I think a 'them and us' situation is in effect.

I think there should definately be a separate games forum, I dont play them myself and I think it takes away from what Ask H2G2 is about...
If the forum was linked to Ask H2G2 like the How Do I forum is, that would be fine, and everybody could get along famously.

When the situation was first discussed, it was purely along the lines of trivial questions vs. serious debate on Ask H2G2. I said then, and I've just checked to confirm my opinion, that there have always been trivial questions on Ask H2G2. I should know - I've been a member for 4 years and I posted some of them. (How big is a US city block, for example, and why do they have a smaller pint than in the UK?) What there hasn't always been is a plethora of games and the really, *really* trivial things, like 'What did you have for breakfast?'

Having given the matter some serious consideration, I think the trivial questions should be moved to somewhere like 'Misc. Chat' and the games should be moved to somewhere like the new 'Game Addicts' forum. Links to these places should be prominently displayed on the 'Ask H2G2' page, and a message should be posted in the Ask H2G2 forum stating the new 'rules' for using the forum - only questions that are not ridiculously trivial are acceptable.

That's my .

Expect discussions about what's trivial and what isn't. Questions like "what did you have for brekky" can be made pretty untrivial if that's what you want. You can go 'deep' and start probling the significance of brekky rituals. Reminds me of the philosopher who was asked by their daughter "is weather important?". They thought for two weeks and came back with the answer "yes".

I had been complaining this myself a little while ago. Again, it's not that I don't agree with the games, it's that there's probably a better place for them than Ask.

There are a couple of places similar to Ask (as pointed out above), if they were linked to each other then perhaps people couple use them for their purposes rather than trying to get everything in Ask and things getting lost. There are probably a number or serious conversations that have not had the traffic they wanted or meritied because they had been shoved off the top page of Ask. And possibly vice- versa.

Just before I posted this I had a look and found five games and five others. I think that says that the Games are big enough to merit their own forum!

I agree with a seperate games forum. (not that this is suprising considering I've been wrtitting one ) I think Ask should be kept to less trivial threads. Think everything I would say has already been said, so no point repeating it.

I have seen your page btw and i think that when this is put forward to the feedback forum it should be given as an example at least if they are not wishing to use it directly!



Mort

Thanks Mort. It's certainly growing fast.